Denver and the West

Privacy worries may stall commercial use of drone aircraft

Mesa County Deputy Danny Norris launches the Falcon drone. The Falcon is manufactured by a company in Aurora. (Courtesy of Mesa County Sheriff's Department)

Drones are relatively rare in U.S. airspace, but that could soon change.Last year, Congress mandated that the Federal Aviation Administration create a plan for the safe integration of unmanned aerial vehicles into the national airspace. Those regulations should be complete by 2015, and the agency expects a commercial boom — as many as 30,000 drones airborne in the U.S. by 2020. But public fears about police spying could stall the technologically advanced industry eager to be unleashed.

Experts say that before the tiny aircraft — outfitted with technology to surreptitiously track, sense and explore — are launched to do the work of science and industry, the government must make sure there are privacy safeguards in place.

The University of Colorado at Boulder in 2010 was part of Vortex2, with more than 100 scientists studying tornadoes. An armada of unmanned craft carrying observation gear surrounded supercell thunderstorms and the tornadoes they spawned. (Courtesy of the University of Colorado)

"If we don't fix the privacy problems for civil liberties, we'll never realize the benefits from drones," said Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington who specializes in robotics and privacy. "Folks will be afraid and object."

Some Colorado police departments are already using the technology to aid in their work, but top brass in Denver say they'll stay away until privacy issues are resolved.

"Drones have been really effective on the battlefield, but they're also considered a battlefield weapon," Denver police spokesman Lt. Matt Murray said. "We believe our police department has to respond to the demands and desires of our community, and we're not sure American communities are looking for this yet."

Murray said drones can be equipped with gear that allows police to peer into windows even when the blinds are drawn and with license-plate readers that, when combined with law enforcement databases, could track "where everybody is all the time."

"We have a helicopter that flies over the city with extremely sensitive infrared cameras, but we don't have the capability to go to a building and go up and down the floors without people knowing about it," Murray said. "We believe a lot of search-and-seizure issues are going to happen."

But the tiny craft are effective and cost-effective. They can go places humans can't, which is great for search-and-rescue teams facing vast and difficult terrain. They can track a suspect for weeks, or months, without fatigue or complaint.

Mesa County has used drones for investigations and search-and-rescue efforts, and to create 3-D images of crime scenes. Last summer, they were used to help the Grand Junction Fire Department during the White Hall fire by sensing hot spots and taking aerial photos of the burn zone.

Future wildfires might also get help.

"At night when there are no firebombers out, we can use our unmanned system back and forth along the fire line, so we'll know immediately if fire has broken out in someone's backyard," said Ben Miller, who manages the sheriff's unmanned-aircraft program.

Debates over privacy are familiar to Miller.

"What gets me going is the idea is that just because we're cops, we're going to abuse something," said Miller.

The specter of backlash looms.

"The worry right now is that Congress, out of shock factor, will pass some anti-drone bill and not let us" use them for good, he said, "like finding lost children or processing a crime scene."

Several bills were introduced in the 112th Congress that would restrict the use of domestic drones by law enforcement, and the Farmers Privacy Act of 2012 would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from using drones for aerial surveillance of agricultural land unless the farmer gave consent.

The development of American privacy law hasn't kept up with the swift advances in information technology, Calo said, which means that there is little in the Constitution, case law or statutes that would stop the use of drones for surveillance in the United States.

"I think by and large the government tries to do its job, but there is some concern about mission creep, where drones are put up for (certain) reasons, but then are used for other reasons," Calo said. "My examination of drones has led me to believe the potential positive uses outweigh the potential negatives."

If the privacy problems are resolved, Colorado could be a perfect place for drone testing and use.

"Colorado has different kinds of environments, like mountains and flat areas, with different temperatures," Calo said. "There are very good universities and a nice startup community in Boulder that could leverage this stuff."

One of the leaders is the Research Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles at the University of Colorado, which has developed a fleet of drones used to study severe storms, especially tornadoes.

In 2010, it participated in the $10 million National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Vortex2 project. An armada of unmanned craft carrying observation gear surrounded supercell thunderstorms and the tornadoes they spawned.

Putting sensors on drones would improve information-gathering about everything from wildfire science to atmospheric and earth sciences, he said.

"Technology has gotten to a point where that's not what is holding us back," Frew said. "Technology is waiting for the laws to be clarified. We're at the tipping point, and something needs to be decided soon."

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